Einstein Lecture: The Enigma of the Ice-Age and other Climate Secrets

The 17th Einstein Lecture at Freie Universität Berlin will be given by the internationally renowned climate scientist and director of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) Hans Joachim Schellnhuber on "The Enigma of the Ice-Age and other Climate Secrets". Increasingly, the modern theory of complex systems contributes to our understanding of the forces and interdependencies that cause the confusing dynamics of the global climate system on all timescales. In particular, research recently succeeded in largely solving the riddle of the quasi-periodic icing of the Northern Hemisphere during the past 2.5 million years. Due to massive greenhouse gas emissions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the planet’s natural environment is now being shaped by anthropogenic forces that may activate so-called “tipping elements” in fundamental components of the climate system (as ice sheets, mega-ecosystems, atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns). The lecture will attempt to retrace the most important aspects of historical climate dynamics as well as to identify the most critical developments likely to be triggered by ill-considered human interventions. The Einstein Lectures Dahlem, hosted by Freie Universität Berlin since 2005 in partnership with several external institutions, are dedicated to the epochal work of Albert Einstein. Einstein was the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics for almost two decades. Since 2017, this first-rate-interdisciplinary colloquium is hosted in cooperation with Max Planck Society, the legal successor of Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The lectures are held in Dahlem, a district in Berlin that is traditionally a center of scientific research. They address a broad academic public and cover various scientific disciplines influenced by Einstein’s thinking. The Lecture will be given in German without translation. Entrance free, registration requested by October 23.